Phoning It In: My Year of Teaching Via Skype

My year-long experiment with synchronous teaching over a Skype connection is complete. The good news: It worked. Better and more seamlessly than I could ever have imagined. But whether that means telepedagogy has a place in traditional academe is not so easily answered. - See more at: 

By Nathan Faries

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https://chroniclevitae.com

Games in the Classroom Reading List

Last week on Twitter, I was asked for some recommendation for critical readings on games and learning. There are lots of enthusiasts for games in the classroom out there (myself included, of course) and tons of great places to start if you’re interested in learning more about bringing games into education. These are only the tip of the iceberg–there’s a particularly rich conversation in game studies surrounding serious and persuasive games, which is decidedly interwoven with educational games.

By Anastasia Salter

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http://chronicle.com/blogs/profhacker

Shifting the Faculty-Tech Paradigm

Life as an early adopter of any innovation can be challenging and often quite lonely. Early adopters (Rogers, 1995) are able to imagine how innovative ideas could revolutionize the way things are done. Although new innovations are being introduced with increasing frequency within nursing education, few spread with the speed that would satisfy an early adopter because there are many issues that prevent and hinder the diffusion of innovation within nursing education. All successful innovative teaching methodologies have challenges – and in many cases continue to. 

By Gillian Seely 

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http://www.pearsonlearningsolutions.com/blog

Apple Watch: Coming to a Classroom Near You?

Wearable technology has entered the mainstream. The Apple Watch, announced on Tuesday, ushers in the possibility that, one day soon, campuses across the country will contend with students who are literally attached to their gadgets.

“These wearable technologies will become like appendages,” said B.J. Fogg, a consulting professor at Stanford University and director of the Stanford Persuasive Tech Lab. “To remove those capabilities will be like tying one hand behind your back.”

By Rebecca Koenig

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http://chronicle.com/blogs/wiredcampus

5 Big Ideas in U.S. Education with Dr. Jeff Borden

In this series, Pearson's Dr. Jeff Borden shares what he believes to be the five big ideas shaking up education today. What are your thoughts about the biggest trends in education today? Anything that didn't make Dr. Borden's top five?

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http://www.pearsonlearningsolutions.com

Your 3 Worst Classroom Distractions (and How to Deal With Them)

Last week we asked you to name your most-hated classroom distraction—the nuisance that mars your lecture or class discussion beyond recognition.

You did not disappoint.

The following list—taken from more than 100 comments on the article and on Facebook, and sorted by the frequency with which you mentioned each nuisance—is not scientific. But it might put your madhouse of a classroom in perspective and give you some new solutions for these recurring problems.

By Andy Thomason

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http://chronicle.com/blogs/ticker/

Google Classroom: First Impressions

The new learning management system (LMS) offered to Google Apps for Education users has recently become fully available: Google Classroom. In its current early incarnation, the option may be attractive for instructors who are not currently using an LMS and want to give one a try, but only if they are already using the Google Apps for Education or have a registered domain that they can configure for its use.

By Konrad M. Lawson

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http://chronicle.com/blogs/profhacker/